RABAT, Dec 14 (Reuters) – Morocco’s national airline said it was cancelling all flights it had scheduled for Wednesday to carry fans to Doha for the World Cup semi-final, citing what it said was a decision by Qatari authorities.
“Following the latest restrictions imposed by the Qatari authorities, Royal Air Maroc regrets to inform customers of the cancellation of their flights operated by Qatar Airways,” the airline said in an emailed statement.
The Qatari government’s international media office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Royal Air Maroc had previously said it would lay on 30 additional flights to help fans get to Qatar for Wednesday night’s semi-final game against France but on Tuesday a source at a RAM travel agency said only 14 flights had been scheduled.
The cancellation of Wednesday’s seven scheduled flights means RAM was only able to fly the seven flights on Tuesday, leaving fans who had already booked match tickets or hotel rooms unable to travel.
RAM said it would reimburse air tickets and apologised to customers.
The RAM spokesperson did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment. Qatar Airways did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.
Reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi; Additional reporting by Andrew Mills; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Andrew Heavens
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KYIV/RIYADH, Sept 21 (Reuters) – Russia and Ukraine carried out an unexpected prisoner swap on Wednesday, the largest since the war began and involving almost 300 people, including 10 foreigners and the commanders who led a prolonged Ukrainian defence of Mariupol earlier this year.
The foreigners released included two Britons and a Moroccan who had been sentenced to death in June after being captured fighting for Ukraine. Also freed were three other Britons, two Americans, a Croatian, and a Swedish national.
The timing and magnitude of the swap came as a surprise, given Russian President Vladimir Putin had announced a partial troop mobilisation earlier in the day in an apparent escalation of the conflict that began in February. Pro-Russian separatists had also said last month that the Mariupol commanders would go on trial. read more
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President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the swap – which involved help from Turkey and Saudi Arabia – had been under preparation for quite a long time and involved intense haggling. Under the terms of the deal, 215 Ukrainians – most of whom were captured after the fall of Mariupol – were released.
In exchange, Ukraine sent back 55 Russians and pro-Moscow Ukrainians and Viktor Medvedchuk, the leader of a banned pro-Russian party who was facing treason charges.
“This is clearly a victory for our country, for our entire society. And the main thing is that 215 families can see their loved ones safe and at home,” Zelenskiy said in a video address.
“We remember all our people and try to save every Ukrainian. This is the meaning of Ukraine, our essence, this is what distinguishes us from the enemy.”
Zelenskiy thanked Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan for his help and said five senior Ukrainian commanders would remain in Turkey until the end of the war.
Kyiv had a long and difficult fight to secure the release of the five, he said.
Prisoners of war (five British citizens, one Moroccan, one Swede, one Croat, and two Americans) are seen in the tarmac after arriving, following successful mediation efforts by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, from Russia to King Khalid International Airport, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, September 21, 2022. Saudi Press Agency/Handout via REUTERS
They include Lieutenant Colonel Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov battalion that did much of the fighting, and his deputy, Svyatoslav Palamar. Also freed was Serhiy Volynsky, the commander of the 36th Marine Brigade.
The three men had helped lead a dogged weeks-long resistance from the bunkers and tunnels below Mariupol’s giant steel works before they and hundreds of Azov fighters surrendered in May to Russian-backed forces.
“We’re proud of what you’ve done for our nation, proud of each and every one of you,” Zelenskiy said in a video call with the five which was released by his office.
There was no immediate comment from Moscow about the deal and why it had freed men who Russian-backed separatists said would go on trial later this year.
Saudi Arabia brokered an arrangement whereby the 10 foreigners were flown to Saudi Arabia. The mediation involved Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has maintained close ties with Putin.
The freed prisoners included U.S. citizens Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27, both from Alabama, who were captured in June while fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Also freed were Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun, who were all sentenced to death by a court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.
Large numbers of foreigners have travelled to Ukraine to fight since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.
The head of the U.N. human rights mission in Ukraine said earlier this month that Russia was not allowing access to prisoners of war, adding that the U.N. had evidence that some had been subjected to torture and ill-treatment that could amount to war crimes. read more
Russia denies torture or other forms of maltreatment of POWs.
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Reporting by Valentyn Ogirenko in Kyiv, Aziz El Yaakoubi in Riyadh and David Ljunggren in Ottawa
Editing by Rosalba O’Brien
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MADRID, June 24 (Reuters) – Morocco said 18 migrants died trying to cross into Spain’s North African enclave of Melilla on Friday, after a violent two-hour skirmish between migrants and border officers that also led to scores of injuries
About 2,000 migrants stormed a high fence that seals off the enclave. This led to clashes with security forces as more than 100 migrants managed to cross from Morocco into Melilla, Moroccan and Spanish authorities said.
Morocco’s Interior Ministry initially said five migrants had died in the border raid, some after falling from the fence surrounding Melilla and others in a crush, and that 76 migrants were injured. It later said another 13 had died.
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Some 140 Members of Moroccan security forces were also injured, it added, five seriously, though none of them died.
Over the past decade, Melilla and Ceuta, a second Spanish enclave also on Africa’s northern coast, have become a magnet for mostly sub-Saharan migrants trying to get into Europe.
Friday’s attempt began around 6:40 a.m. in the face of resistance from Moroccan security forces.
At around 8:40 a.m., more than 500 migrants began to enter Melilla, jumping over the roof of a border checkpoint after cutting through fencing with a bolt cutter, the Madrid government’s representative body there said in a statement.
Most were forced back but around 130 men managed to reach the enclave and were being processed at its reception centre for immigrants, it added.
Footage posted on social media showed large groups of African youths walking along roads around the border, celebrating entering Melilla and the firing of what appeared to be tear gas by the authorities.
Spanish authorities said the border incursion led to 57 migrants and 49 Spanish police sustaining injuries.
‘HUMAN TRAFFICKING MAFIAS’
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez paid tribute to officers on both side of the border for fighting off “a well-organised, violent assault” which he suggested was organised by “human trafficking mafias”.
He underscored the improvement in relations between Madrid and Rabat. In March, Spain recognised the position of Morocco towards the Western Sahara, a territory the North African nation claims as its own but where an Algeria-backed independence movement is demanding establishment of an autonomous state.
“I would like to thank the extraordinary cooperation we are having with the Kingdom of Morocco which demonstrates the need to have the best of relations,” he said.
AMDH Nador, a Moroccan human rights watchdog, said the incursion came a day after migrants clashed with Moroccan security personnel attempting to clear camps they had set up in a forest near Melilla.
The watchdog’s head, Omar Naji, told Reuters that clash was part of an “intense crackdown” on migrants since Spanish and Moroccan forces resumed joint patrols and reinforced security measures in the area around the enclave.
The incursion was the first significant one since Spain adopted its more pro-Rabat stance over Western Sahara.
In the weeks of 2022 prior to that shift, migrant entries into the two enclaves had more than trebled compared with the same period of 2021.
In mid-2021, as many as 8,000 people swam into Ceuta or clambered over its fence over a couple of days, taking advantage of the apparent lifting of a security net on the Moroccan side of the border following a bilateral diplomatic spat.
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Reporting by Emma Pinedo, Christina Thykjaer in Madrid and Ahmed El Jechtimi in Morocco, editing by Aislinn Laing, John Stonestreet, Alex Richardson and David Gregorio
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Shelling causes fire after oil leak at chemical plant, governor says
Ukraine urges West to deliver more heavy arms swiftly
War blocks vital Ukraine grain exports from Black Sea
KYIV, June 11 (Reuters) – Ukraine remains in control of the Azot chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk where hundreds of civilians are sheltering amid bitter fighting, the region’s governor said on Saturday, after a Russia-backed separatist claimed 300 to 400 Ukrainian fighters were also trapped there.
Earlier, the governor, Serhiy Gaidai, said Russian shelling of the plant in Luhansk province had ignited a big fire after a leak of tonnes of oil. read more
In neighboring Donetsk province, Russian media reported that a huge cloud of smoke could be seen after an explosion in the city of Avdiivka, which houses another chemical plant. read more
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Weeks of fighting for Sievierodonetsk, a small city in Luhansk that has become the focus of Russia’s advance in eastern Ukraine, has pulverized sections of the town and has been some of the bloodiest since Moscow began its invasion on Feb. 24.
“The information about the blockade of the Azot plant is a lie,” Gaidai said on the Telegram messaging app. “Our forces are holding an industrial zone of Sievierodonetsk and are destroying the Russian army in the town.” read more
Ukraine has said some 800 people were hiding in several bomb shelters underneath the Azot plant, including about 200 employees and 600 residents of Sievierodonetsk.
Rodion Miroshnik, a Russian-backed representative of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, said late on Saturday that some civilians had started to leave and that Ukrainian forces may be holding several hundred civilians “hostage”.
Earlier, he said 300 to 400 Ukrainian fighters were blockaded on the grounds of the plant along with civilians.
Gaidai said earlier that Russian forces controlled most of the city, although Ukraine controlled the Azot plant.
The Ukrainian armed forces’ general staff said on Facebook that Ukrainian forces pushed back a Russian attack on three small towns to the northwest of Sloviansk in Donetsk province, while fighting was continuing in a fourth settlement in the area, as well as to the east of the city.
Russian strikes knocked out power in Donetsk’s two largest Ukrainian-controlled cities on Saturday, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said.
In a short video address late on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that while “fierce street fights continue in Sievierodonetsk,” the Ukrainian military was gradually liberating territory further west in the Kherson region and had had some successes in Zaporizhzhia too.
“We are definitely going to prevail in this war that Russia has started,” he told a conference in Singapore via video link earlier in the day. “It is on the battlefields in Ukraine that the future rules of this world are being decided.” read more
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.
Ukraine has appealed for swifter deliveries of heavy weapons from the West to turn the tide of the war, saying Russian forces have at least 10 times more artillery pieces.
Ukrainian forces have proven more resilient than expected, but, in a report on Friday, the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War said that as they use the last of their stocks of Soviet-era weapons and munitions, they will require consistent Western support to transition to new Western supplies and systems.
A local man with kids rides a bicycle along an empty street, as smoke rises after shelling in the background, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the town of Lysychansk, Luhansk region, Ukraine June 10, 2022. REUTERS/Oleksandr Ratushniak
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The institute said effective artillery would “be increasingly decisive in the largely static fighting in eastern Ukraine.”
EUROPEAN TALKS
On Saturday, Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper, citing French and Ukrainian government sources, said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will travel to Kyiv with French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi before the Group of Seven summit at the end of June. read more
A German government spokesperson told Reuters they were not able to confirm the report and the Elysee Palace in Paris declined to confirm it. The Italian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
None of the three leaders has been to Kyiv since Russia’s invasion. Macron has sought to maintain a dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a stance some eastern European and Baltic countries see as undermining efforts to push him into negotiations.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told Zelenskiy during a visit to Kyiv on Saturday that the EU executive’s opinion on Ukraine’s request to join the European Union would be ready by the end of next week. read more
All 27 EU governments would have to agree to grant Ukraine candidate status, after which there would be extensive talks on reforms required before Kyiv could be considered for membership.
Referring to those skeptical about Ukraine’s EU bid, Zelenskiy said keeping Ukraine outside of the bloc would work against Europe. He called his talks with von der Leyen “very fruitful” and added: “there will be many more important and, I hope, fruitful talks with European leaders next week.”
GRAIN SHORTAGES
The conflict between Ukraine and Russia, two of the world’s biggest grain exporters, has reverberated well beyond Ukraine.
The United Nations said on Friday up to 19 million more people in the world could face chronic hunger in the next year because of reduced wheat and other food exports.
Ukraine’s deputy agriculture minister said on Saturday up to 300,000 tonnes of grain may have been stored in warehouses in the Black Sea port of Mykolaiv that Kyiv says were destroyed by Russian shelling last weekend. read more
Turkey has sought a deal so Ukraine can resume shipments from its Black Sea ports, which accounted for 98% of its cereal and oilseed exports before the war. But Moscow says Kyiv must clear the ports of mines and Ukraine says it needs security guarantees so it is not left exposed. read more
The battle for Sievierodonetsk recalls weeks of bombardment of the southern port city of Mariupol, which was reduced to ruins before Russian forces took control of it last month.
Moscow turned to expanding control in the eastern Donbas region, where pro-Russian separatists had already held a swathe of territory since 2014, after being forced to scale back its initial more sweeping campaign goals.
It calls its actions a “special military operation” to disarm and “denazify” Ukraine. Kyiv and its allies call it an unprovoked war of aggression to capture territory.
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Reporting by Natalia Zinets and Max Hunder
Additional reporting by Reuters bureaux
Writing by Edmund Blair, Frances Kerry and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Jonathan Oatis
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Ukrainian, Russian forces fighting street by street
City under day, night shelling, says Ukraine
Sievierodonetsk key to Russia’s war objective
Briton, Moroccan sentenced to death in separatist Donbas
Rising concern over food crisis as Russia blockades ports
KYIV, June 10 (Reuters) – Ukrainian forces were holding their positions in intense street fighting and under day and night shelling in Sievierodonetsk, officials said, as Russia pushes to control the bombed-out city, key to its objective of controlling eastern Ukraine.
Sievierodonetsk and its twin city Lysychansk, on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets river, are the last Ukrainian-controlled parts of Luhansk province, which Russia is determined to seize as one of its principal war objectives.
Ukraine’s Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said on Thursday the situation in Sievierodonetsk was “extremely complicated” and Russian forces were focusing all of their might in the area.
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“They don’t spare their people, they’re just sending men like cannon fodder … they are shelling our military day and night,” Danilov told Reuters in an interview.
Ukraine says its only hope to turn the tide in its favour in the small industrial city is more artillery to offset Russia’s massive firepower.
In a rare update from the city, the commander of Ukraine’s Svoboda National Guard Battalion, Petro Kusyk, said Ukrainians were drawing the Russians into street fighting to neutralise their artillery advantage.
“Yesterday was successful for us – we launched a counteroffensive and in some areas we managed to push them back one or two blocks. In others they pushed us back, but just by a building or two,” he said in a televised interview.
But he said his forces were suffering from a “catastrophic” lack of counter-battery artillery to fire back at Russia’s guns, and getting such weapons would transform the battlefield.
Reuters could not verify the battlefield reports.
In the south, where Russia is trying to impose its rule on a tract of occupied territory spanning Kherson and Zaporizhzhia provinces, Ukraine’s defence ministry said it had captured new ground in a counter-attack in Kherson province.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an evening address that Ukraine had “some positive developments in the Zaporizhzhia region, where we are succeeding in disrupting the occupiers’ plans”. He did not provide details.
Reuters could not independently verify the situation on the ground in Zaporizhzhia or Kherson. Russian-installed proxies in both provinces say they are planning referendums to join Russia.
Thousands of people have been killed and millions have fled since Russia launched its “special military operation” to disarm and “denazify” its neighbour on Feb. 24. Ukraine and its allies call the invasion an unprovoked war of aggression.
Speaking in Moscow to mark the 350th anniversary of Russian Tsar Peter the Great’s birth, President Vladimir Putin drew a parallel between what he portrayed as their historic quests to win back what he called Russian lands. read more
“Peter the Great waged the Great Northern War for 21 years. It would seem that he was at war with Sweden, he took something from them. He did not take anything from them, he returned (what was Russia’s),” Putin said.
‘WE ARE STAYING’
Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk said about 10,000 civilians were still trapped in the city – roughly a tenth of its pre-war population.
To the west of Sievierodonetsk, Russia is pushing from the north and south, trying to trap Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region, comprising Luhansk and neighbouring Donetsk province.
Russia shelled more than 20 towns in Donetsk and Luhansk on Thursday, destroying or damaging 49 homes, several manufacturing plants, farm buildings and a rail station, said the Ukraine military. Two civilians were killed, it said.
Russia says it does not target civilians.
“Sabotage groups attempts to infiltrate the area have increased. But we see them and prevent them from entering the area,” said Ivan, a Ukrainian soldier on the frontline in New York, Donetsk.
In Soledar, a salt-mining town near Bakhmut close to the front line, buildings had been blasted into craters.
Remaining residents, mostly elderly, were sheltering in a crowded cellar. Antonina, 65, had ventured out to see her garden. “We are staying. We live here. We were born here,” she sobbed. “When is it all going to end?”
The devastated eastern port of Mariupol, under siege by Russian troops for months until it fell, is now at risk of a major cholera outbreak, Britain’s defence ministry said on Friday.
There is likely a critical shortage of medicines in Kherson, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said in a Twitter update. Russia is struggling to provide basic public services to the population in Russian-occupied territories, it added.
GRAIN
In the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, one of Russia’s proxies in eastern Ukraine, a court sentenced to death two Britons and a Moroccan who were captured while fighting for Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported.
Britain condemned the court’s decision as a “sham judgment” with no legitimacy. read more
Ukraine is one of the world’s biggest grain and food oil exporters, and international attention has focused in recent weeks on the threat of international famine seen as caused by Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.
“Millions of people may starve if the Russian blockade of the Black Sea continues,” Zelenskiy said in televised remarks.
Russia blames the food crisis on Western sanctions restricting its own grain exports. It says it is willing to let Ukrainian ports open for exports if Ukraine removes mines and meets other conditions. Ukraine calls such offers empty promises.
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Additional reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Michael Perry; Editing by Robert Birsel and Kim Coghill
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Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, speaks during the start of a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (not pictured), at El Mouradia Palace, the President’s official residence in Algiers, Algeria March 30, 2022. Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via REUTERS
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ALGIERS/MADRID, June 8 (Reuters) – Algeria suspended a 20-year-old friendship treaty with Spain that committed the two sides to cooperation in controlling migration flows, and also banned imports from Spain, escalating a row over Madrid’s stance on Western Sahara.
Algerian state media reported the suspension of the treaty without citing any reason, though Algeria had in March withdrawn its ambassador to Spain for consultations because of the Western Sahara dispute. read more
Spanish diplomatic sources said Spain regretted the decision but remained committed to the content and principle of the treaty.
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Separately, Algeria’s banking association issued a statement telling banks that imports of goods and services from Spain were stopping because the treaty was suspended.
The 2002 treaty called on both sides to “deepen their cooperation in the control of migratory flows and the fight against trafficking against human beings” according to the text recorded in Spain’s official journal.
On Wednesday, 113 undocumented migrants arrived in Spain’s Balearic islands, a route that Spanish authorities said tended to be used by boats coming from Algeria.
Migrant flows have sharply increased across the Mediterranean this year as the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has hit the global economy.
Algeria was angered when Spain said in March it supported a Moroccan plan to offer autonomy to Western Sahara. Algeria backs the Polisario Front movement seeking full independence for the territory, which Morocco regards as its own and mostly controls. read more
A former Algerian official told Reuters that Algiers believed the Spanish government had decided not to preserve good ties with Algeria.
Algeria is a key gas supplier to Spain, but Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has previously said he would not break the supply contract over the row.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said there was no indication that had changed and Spanish Energy Minister Teresa Ribera said Algeria’s gas supply conduct had been exemplary.
Algeria is expected to review prices for any new gas contract with Spanish firms, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. The current contract is long-term with prices well under the current market level, the same source, who asked not to be identified, said.
Since the Western Sahara conflict flared again in 2020, nearly three decades after a ceasefire, relations between Algeria and Morocco have sharply deteriorated. read more
Spain’s shift towards Morocco’s stance on Western Sahara ended a dispute between Madrid and Rabat last year involving both the disputed territory and migration. read more
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Reporting by Enas Alashray and Lamine Chikhi; editing by Angus McDowall and Richard Pullin
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Israel hosts rare summit with Blinken, Arab foreign ministers
Morocco, UAE, Bahrain to attend after normalising ties with Israel
Egypt foreign minister also to participate
JERUSALEM, March 27 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought to reassure Israeli and Arab partners convening for a rare summit in Israel on Sunday that Washington would continue to counter any Iranian threat even as he promoted nuclear diplomacy with Tehran.
The issue is likely to dominate the two-day summit which will include foreign ministers from three Arab states that normalised ties with Israel even as peacemaking with the Palestinians remains stalled. Blinken pledged in parallel to work on improving Palestinian conditions.
Blinken’s visit comes as some U.S. allies in the region question President Joe Biden administration’s commitment and brace for fallout from an Iranian nuclear deal and the Ukrainian crisis.
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The nuclear talks had been close to an agreement several weeks ago until Russia made last-minute demands of the United States, insisting that sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine should not affect its trade with Iran.
Restoring a 2015 nuclear deal “is the best way to put Iran’s nuclear programme back in to the box it was in”, Blinken said.
But whether or not that happens, “our commitment to the core principle of Iran never acquiring a nuclear weapon is unwavering,” he said alongside Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid.
“The United States will continue to stand up to Iran when it threatens us or when it threatens our allies and partners.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a European Union leaders summit amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Brussels, Belgium March 24, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo
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Attending the Lapid-hosted summit in a desert hotel later on Sunday and Monday will be the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, which were part of the so-called Abraham Accords brokered by the Trump administration in 2020 to normalise ties with Israel.
Egypt’s foreign minister, whose country on Saturday marked 43 years of peace with Israel, will also join the summit.
“Normalisation is becoming the new normal in the region,” Blinken said, adding that Washington hoped “to bring others in”.
This, he said, should entail “forg(ing) tangible improvements in the lives of Palestinians and preserving our long-standing goal of reaching a negotiated two-state solution”. Blinken meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah later on Sunday.
The venue for the foreign ministers’ meeting is Sde Boker, where Israel’s founding father and first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, retired and is buried. The remote Negev desert farm collective has long been a symbol of Israeli innovation.
It will provide an opportunity for delegates to hold discussions in repose, one Israeli official involved in the planning said, calling it “our version of Camp David”.
Sde Boker may also have provided an uncontroversial alternative to Jerusalem, which Israel considers its capital – a status not recognised by most countries in the absence of a resolution to Palestinian claims on the city.
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Writing by Dan Williams; Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington. Editing by Gerry Doyle and Raissa Kasolowsky
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Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett holds a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, Israel, December 5, 2021. Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool via REUTERS
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PM Bennett to meet de facto ruler of Gulf state
Iran, a UAE neighbour and Israeli foe, in nuclear talks
JERUSALEM, Dec 12 (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett flew to the United Arab Emirates on Sunday and will meet its de facto ruler in the highest-level visit since the countries formalised relations last year.
Before taking off from Tel Aviv, Bennett said he and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan would meet on Monday to discuss ways to bolster cooperation and strengthen economic and commercial ties.
There was no immediate confirmation from Abu Dhabi of the visit, which comes at a time of heightened regional tension as world powers try to revive a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. read more
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Israel has broached setting up joint defences with Gulf Arab states that share its concern over Iranian activities. Yet the UAE has also reached out to its Iran, sending its senior national security adviser there last Monday to meet his Iranian counterpart and President Ebrahim Raisi. read more
Since August 2020, the UAE, followed by with Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco, have moved to normalise ties with Israel under a U.S.-sponsored initiative dubbed the “Abraham Accords” after the biblical patriarch revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Bennett’s UAE trip is the first visit by an Israeli premier to any of those countries since the accords.
“In just one year since normalising our relationship, we’ve already seen the extraordinary potential of the Israel-UAE partnership,” Bennett said.
The rapprochement has been condemned by Palestinians, whose diplomacy with Israel stalled in 2014.
Bennett’s visit “violates the Arab consensus that is supposed to support the Palestinian cause amid the challenges imposed by the (Israeli) occupation,” Wasel Abu Youssef of the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization told Reuters.
An Israeli newspaper reported on Sunday that Israel had declined to sell missile defences to the UAE due to its Iran links. A policy review could now be called for, Israel Hayom said, suggesting the approval of such sales may help distance the UAE from Tehran.
Israeli and UAE officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on that report.
The Bennett government is due to decide this week whether to green-light a private Israeli-Emirati contract to offload Gulf oil in the Red Sea port of Eilat. That deal has been challenged in Israel’s Supreme Court by environmentalists and is opposed by Bennett’s energy minister. read more
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Additional reporting by Rami Ayyub, Ali Sawafta, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ghaida Ghantous; Editing by Ari Rabinovitch, Raissa Kasolowsky and Pravin Char
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Morocco’s King Mohammed VI arrives for a lunch at the Elysee Palace as part of the One Planet Summit in Paris, France, December 12, 2017. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer
RABAT, Nov 6 (Reuters) – Morocco’s King Mohammed gave a speech about Western Sahara on Saturday but made no mention of an Algerian accusation that Morocco targeted Algerian civilians in an incident last week that the United Nations said took place in the disputed territory.
Algeria’s accusation has raised fears of further escalation between the North African rivals after Algeria cut off diplomatic relations, stopped supplying gas to Morocco and blocked Algerian airspace to Moroccan flights.
Ties between the countries have been fractious for years, but have deteriorated since last year after the Algeria-backed Polisario Front said it was resuming its armed struggle for the independence of Western Sahara, a territory Morocco sees as its own.
King Mohammed’s silence on the dispute with Algeria in his annual speech on Western Sahara is in line with Morocco’s practice since soon after Algeria broke off ties in August in ignoring all statements coming from Algiers.
However, Algeria’s accusation on Wednesday that Morocco had killed three civilians driving in the Sahara on Monday has sharply raised the stakes.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune vowed in a statement that the death of the three men “would not go unpunished”.
Morocco has not formally responded to the accusation.
The U.N. peacekeeping force in Western Sahara, MINURSO, visited the site of the incident in territory outside Moroccan control and found two badly damaged Algerian-plated trucks, a U.N. spokesperson said on Friday. The spokesperson said MINURSO was looking into the incident.
Last year the United States recognised Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara as part of a deal that also included Rabat bolstering ties with Israel.
Morocco has been more assertive since then in pushing European countries to follow suit. However, they have not done so and in September a European Union court said some European trade deals with Morocco were invalid because they included products originating in Western Sahara territory.
King Mohammed said on Saturday that Morocco would not agree “any economic or commercial step that excludes the Moroccan Sahara”.
Reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi, writing by Angus McDowall
Editing by Alistair Bell
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BROCKTON (CBS) – A Brockton Police officer was shot four times and two men are dead following an hours-long standoff Thursday evening.
Officers were called to a home on Taber Ave. for a report of gunshots fired around 5:45 p.m. While police were investigating, another man was found dead from gunshot wounds inside a silver SUV parked near the home. Then, a Brockton Police officer was shot four times, including in his Kevlar vest. He was rushed to Boston Medical Center where he spent the night and is expected to make a full recovery. His name has not been released.
SWAT team responds to shooting on Taber Ave. in Brockton (WBZ-TV)
The suspect then barricaded himself inside the home for several hours. A SWAT Team was called in and police negotiated with him. He eventually came outside around 9:30 p.m. and then shot himself, according to Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz. The unidentified man was rushed to the hospital where he died.
Shaun Banion told WBZ-TV he’s known the man since they were kids.
“I was with his father for a little bit and they were negotiating back and forth and from my understanding the negotiators actually said he was outside. So I was happy, it was getting ready to end peacefully. I kept praying left and right, just come out, surrender yourself, you know you’re going to go to jail, but you’ll still be alive. You don’t have to go out on bad terms, take your own life,” he said.
No information has been released yet about the man found dead in the car outside the home. Police do not believe it was a random shooting.
The suspect outside the Taber Ave home during the standoff. (WBZ-TV)
Brockton Mayor Robert Sullivan said he and Police Chief Manny Gomes will visit the injured officer in the hospital Friday.
“This also shows the serious nature of law enforcement, we have very brave men and women that serve Brockton Police every single day,” Mayor Sullivan said.
